


Old Soul

by USS_Enterprise



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Iroh sees what others don't, No Dialogue, Old Souls, Zuko and his swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 16:14:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/USS_Enterprise/pseuds/USS_Enterprise
Summary: Iroh watches as the newly banished prince of the Fire Nation trains on the deck of the ship. He sees what he has always seen, and suspected. Zuko is not normal, he never has been, but he can be great.





	Old Soul

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one shot of introspection and my first A:TLA story ever posted, please enjoy!

          His swords are old, mostly useless but at one time they were sharpened to lethal weapons and the handles were wrapped in soft leather. Now, they are dull and rusting, with cloth ribbons holding the grips together. The weight is still perfect, the length still accurate, but in a fight they wouldn't do him any good.

          He'd found them in an unused storage room in the palace around his 8th birthday, and when he picked them up it felt right somehow. They were swords from an era long passed, when fire nation generals were awarded custom swords when appointed to the position. It was a tradition that had been put to rest 100 years ago, when Sozin claimed it was a 'disgrace to fire to play with blades'. Zuko knows his father would not approve but at this point, he really doesn't care, despite the consequences he'll likely face. For the first time, unlike every time he tries to bend, he feels right. They fit in his hands perfectly, despite being made for an adult and he is anything but. 

          It takes years to find a scroll for what his father calls 'plays things' and his uncle knows are so much more. He is 11 when Iroh brings him a Dao scroll from his travels, and in all the time he has around school and fire bending training, Zuko attempts to master the movements on the pages. By 12 he has them memorized and the dual swords are as much a part of him as his bending. 

          When he is 13 and banished and scarred, the swords are left behind in the fire nation palace. That day he losses his honor, his pride,his home, the sight in his left eye, and his most prized possession. He losses so much of himself that day that he becomes a different person. He was scared before, of his sister, of his father, of failure. Now he's timid, angry and quite. He learned his lesson of speaking out. He knows that his words have no weight and that he will be punished if he voices his thoughts. Iron is a good man though, and it only takes a few months for him to convince Zuko to speak his mind again. He says that it will make him a great leader one day, a great man, because his words are of care and kindness for others, not of terror and destruction. The Dragon of the West knows that if he is to take the throne at any point in the future, he will not rule with fear like those recently before him.  


          Zuko doesn't believe it, but he pretends to for his uncle. He lets his anger fuel his words, and sees that Iron is happy hisÂ nefewÂ is speaking again, instead of looking at his feet and nodding.

          Zuko is 14 and almost a year into his banishment when Iroh finds him with the training dummy, hitting and kicking and ducking, like he does every day in training, but without fire. He is fighting with empty hands and cold toes, like a nonbender. The old general watches, not alerting the young prince to his presence. He is good, not a master, but he'd hold his own in a fight. He knew of the swords, encouraged his nefew really, but he did not know of this. In the days of old, all fire nation soldiers had to know the ways of fighting that Zuko had found in his heart some how. Iroh had always known that his nefew was different, as some would say an 'old soul', his spirit and attitude did not fit his heritage. The son of Ozai would never have spoken out against the death of young soldiers, he would have encouraged it.


End file.
